Adaptive Distributed Ledger Framework for Protecting IoT Networks

Abstract

Voting-Based Distributed Ledger Technologies proved efficiency and security in protecting IoT networks. They allow faster approval time, identify malicious information, and isolate adversaries through repetitive queries to adjacent peers asking their opinions about the validity of each transaction. They enable a decentralized scheme that securely constructs and stores all data types, implying either monetary values, system logs, analytical information, or triggered actions. Several consensus algorithms were introduced to enrich distributed IoT networks with data integrity, transparency, resilience, and trust. This work surveys the main challenges for deploying distributed ledgers in IoT environments. It also introduces an adaptive DLT-based framework that standardizes the fundamental required modules for securing communication among heterogeneous IoT devices. The framework comprises four integrated modules that work simultaneously to ensure data integrity and network security. Practical simulation is also performed to evaluate the effectiveness of this framework through a parameterized model. The experimental results conclude that integrating the four functional modules is essential for network efficiency, reliability, and resilience.